More area News from Ric Hanson.

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The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An Omaha hospital has been included in a settlement with more than 450 hospitals over inappropriate use of a heart device. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Creighton University Medical Center was named in the settlement, which totals more than $250 million.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that from 2003 to 2010 each of 457 hospitals in 43 states implanted the devices during periods in the patients’ care that are prohibited by federal regulations.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Hundreds of protesters have rallied at the University of Iowa campus to argue that the school’s new president shouldn’t have accepted the position. The Des Moines Register reports that about 100 protesters at the university challenged the qualifications of newly-hired president Bruce Harreld Monday afternoon. Harreld began as the university’s 21st president Monday.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Mike Hammond, who co-founded computer maker Gateway Inc. in a northwest Iowa farmhouse in 1985, has died at age 53. Hammond started Gateway with brothers Ted and Norm Waitt, selling what became among one of the most popular computers on the market. He managed the company’s operations in Iowa and South Dakota.

EARLY, Iowa (AP) — A judge has agreed with the murder conviction of an Iowa mother who shot and killed her 20-year-old neighbor in 2001. Tracey Richter is serving life in prison in the slaying of Dustin Wehde. Prosecutors say she fatally shot Wehde as part of a plot to frame her ex-husband during a custody battle, but Richter says her trial was tainted by errors from her defense attorney.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — About 2,000 farmers, grain handlers and corn exporters are suing Swiss biotechnology company Syngenta now that a federal judge has ruled their cases have merit and will move forward. The lawsuits allege Syngenta’s introduction of a new genetically modified corn seed interrupted trade with China in 2011 and may have cost the U.S. corn industry as much as $3 billion.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa is paying $235,000 to settle a lawsuit from a woman who says she was kept in isolation at the Iowa Juvenile Home for 280 days. Jessica Turner’s lawsuit alleged she was held in small concrete cells for weeks at a time between 2011 and 2012. The governor closed the juvenile home in Toledo last year amid questions about the treatment of residents.

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency said Monday, a bridge over Indian Creek along Wildwood Road is re-open to traffic. The bridge, located in the 700 Block of Wildwood Road, between Jackson Township Sections 35-36, was closed in early August for a complete rebuilding project.

A spokesman for the Iowa National Guard says the Armory in Corning (at 1925 210th St.) will be closing next year, and the unit will move to Camp Dodge in Johnston. Col Greg Hapgood said in a press release Monday, that the closure is a result of force structure and stationing study findings. The unit currently assigned to the Corning armory, Detachment 1, Company B, 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry, will move to Camp Dodge in 2016 and consolidate with the main body of Company B. Approximately 80 Soldiers are affected by the closure and move.

Col Hapgood says the Iowa National Guard has a long history in Corning dating back to 1892 with the initial stationing of Company K, 3rd Regiment. Soldiers from the Corning armory have fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Constructed in 1993, the 20,598-square foot Corning armory is the 13th armory to be closed in Iowa as the result of a state-wide consolidation and facilities upgrade program initiated in 2000 by the Iowa National Guard.

The armory will be offered to the public for sale in the near future. Maj. Gen. Tim Orr, Adjutant General for the Iowa National Guard, said “It was a very difficult decision to make as an organization, but with the fiscally-constrained environment all Department of Defense entities face today, consolidating this unit and closing the Corning armory was the best course of action for responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources and for future readiness of our Soldiers. We are incredibly grateful for the strong support of the Corning community for nearly 125 years.”

Since 2000, as part of the Iowa National Guard plan to relocate military units into higher demographic areas, close outdated armories, consolidate units on a regional concept to better utilize training resources, and upgrade existing facilities through renovation and new construction, the Iowa National Guard has consolidated units and closed armories in Sioux Center, Villisca, Mapleton, Atlantic, Clarinda, Glenwood, Hampton, Jefferson, Chariton, Newton, Eagle Grove and Centerville.

In the unlikely event your child collected more Halloween candy than he or she can eat, a dentist in southwest Iowa is willing to take the excess sweets off their hands to keep it out of their mouths. Dr. Cary Jackson, at Broadway Family & Cosmetic Dentistry in Council Bluffs, says he’s trading cash for candy.

“We are accepting candy from trick-or-treaters,” Dr. Jackson says. “Each pound they bring in, they get a dollar.” The dentist says the surplus chocolate bars, suckers and candy corn will be brightening the day for American troops who are stationed far from home. “We’re participating in Operation Gratitude,” Jackson says. “That’s based in California. We’re one of the local branches. We’ll ship the candy to California and they’ll ship it overseas to the troops.”

The candy will be accepted at the dentist’s office through November 13th.

(Radio Iowa)

A Pottawattamie County man was injured when the vehicle he was driving struck a deer on Highway 34 last Thursday morning, in Mills County. The Mills County Sheriff’s Offoce says Brian Bray, of Council Bluffs, was transported to Jennie Edmundson Hospital by Glenwood Rescue, after his 2013 Chevy hit a deer that entered the road at around 7-a.m., Thursday.

The impact caused severe front end damage to Bray’s vehicle.